Through his work in poor countries, Andrew Witty, chief executive
of GlaxoSmithKline, has positioned his company as the leader among
drug makers in advancing world health issues.
After a surgeon removed a huge cancerous tumor from his abdomen,
Robert Collison, 59, spent eight weeks in the hospital with
infections and other complications.
Sue Eisenfeld, a 38-year-old afflicted with maladies like
carotidynia and mucocele, has given herself the title Queen of
Minor Ailments No One Has Ever Heard Of.
People may face a risk from indoor tobacco smoke in a way that’s
never been recognized before, a new study finds. Tobacco smoke
contamination lingering on furniture, clothes and other surfaces –
dubbed thirdhand smoke – may react with indoor air chemicals to
form potential cancer-causing substances.
The purging of gas from pipes has been a common theme in at least
seven serious industrial accidents since 1997 according to the
Chemical Safety Board, which has been critical of the hodgepodge of
local regulations that allow the procedure to be conducted
dangerously. Others have, too.
The Department of Health said late Monday there appears to be "a
very large area" at the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor contaminated
with radioactive tritium, and contamination levels continue to
rise.
It's a blueprint for devastation," said William "Captain Bill"
Sheehan, executive director of Hackensack Riverkeeper, expressing
his opinion of the provisions suggested by Governor Chris
Christie's Department of Environmental Protection.
While Gov. David Paterson's proposed 2011 budget would increase
staff overseeing gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, it would cut
almost twice as many staff regulating other environmental cleanups,
such as those in the Superfund and Brownfield programs.
After only a few minutes of discussion, town leaders declared a
90-day moratorium on issuing new drilling permits inside town
limits, citing concerns about emissions from production equipment
and their effect on human health.
China has revealed its most ambitious measure of what explosive
development has done to its environment, saying Tuesday its first
national pollution census has mapped nearly 6 million sources of
industrial, residential and agricultural waste.
Contaminated water seeping from a mine in Kakadu National Park has
a uranium concentration more than 5,000 times the normal level, a
Senate estimates committee has heard.
In response to the disruptions of climate change, plants will emit
greater levels of fragrant chemicals called biogenic volatile
organic compounds, a major scientific review finds. The problem is
too complex to yet gauge many of the consequences.
Individuals keen to tackle carbon emissions should consider the
example of Tami and Randy Wilson. The Pennsylvania couple have sold
the world's first carbon credit awarded for a reduction in personal
carbon emissions. About 1,800 others have signed up to follow suit.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called studies supporting global
climate change a "bunch of snake oil science" Monday during a rare
appearance in California, a state that has been at the forefront of
environmental regulations.
The Obama administration proposed a new climate service on Monday
that would provide Americans with predictions on how global warming
will affect everything from drought to sea levels.
A new report finds that global warming is altering the Arctic
ecosystem in a way never seen before by humans. It predicts that
the Arctic, which has had sea ice for more than 800,000 years,
might lose summer sea ice as soon as 2030, and that the melting
Arctic will lead to a 3-to-6°C increase over the next century.
Federal authorities on Monday presented a $78.5 million plan
intended to block Asian carp, a hungry, huge, nonnative fish, from
invading the Great Lakes.
The 15-month-old sister of a Layton girl who died Saturday has been
hospitalized in critical condition as investigators try to
understand the role a pest-control chemical might have played in
making the girls and their family sick.
People who drink two or more sweetened soft drinks a week have a
much higher risk of pancreatic cancer, an unusual but deadly
cancer, researchers reported on Monday.
A fierce row over the future of the humble aubergine will reach a
climax on Wednesday with a key government decision on the possible
future commercial cultivation of genetically-modified strains of
the plant.
The General Service Administration will announce the winner of the
first in a series of new federal cafeteria contracts that encourage
the use of healthier food, organic and locally procured food, and
advanced recycling and waste management programs.
A critical safety net for babies - that heelprick of blood taken
from every newborn - is facing an ethics attack. Scientists
consider the leftover samples a treasure, to study questions like
which environmental toxics can trigger childhood cancers. But
seldom are parents asked for their consent.
Women who give birth after age 40 are nearly twice as likely to
have a child with autism as those under 25, but it is unlikely that
delayed parenthood plays a big role in the current autism epidemic,
California researchers reported Monday.
Consuming as little as two soft drinks a week can almost double the
chances of developing the disease, one of the most deadly forms of
cancer, a study found.
Being an older mother significantly increases the risk of having a
child with autism, but being an older father only increases the
risk when the mother is under the age of 30, U.S. researchers said
on Monday.
A woman's chance of having a child with autism increase
substantially as she ages, but the risk may be less for older dads
than previously suggested, a new study analyzing more than 5
million births found.
Older mothers are more likely than younger ones to have a child
with autism, and older fathers significantly contribute to the risk
of the disorder when their partners are under 30, researchers are
reporting.
Employing a broad-based lobbying effort, the soft drink industry
has smothered a plan to tax sugared beverages — a plan advocates
said would have reduced obesity and helped finance health care
reform.
NYT > Science